Guillotine

The instrument of decapitation introduced during the French revolution by the Convention, and named after its supposed inventor, J. I. Guillotin. It is composed of two upright posts, grooved on the inside, and connected on the top by a cro -beam. In these grooves a sharp iron blade, placed obliquely, descends by its own weight on the neck of the victim, who is bound to a board laid below. The invention of machines of this kind is ascribed to the Persians. In Italy, from the 13th century, it was the privilege of the nobles to be put to death by a machine of this kind, which was called mannaia . Machines of similar kind were used in Scotland and Holland for the purpose of decapitation.